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Saturday, June 30, 2012

This Mama is too tired to blog a long or coherent blog, but there were a few things I wanted to record because I want to remember them.

First was the airport arrival. She spotted us immediately and began to wave, patiently waiting her turn to be introduced. I had worried how she would feel about being hosted in a home with small children because she probably wasn't use to them. When she came around she gave us big hugs one by one. We all tried our best to say "hi" in her language... which is privit (pree-veet). She smiled and said it to us. I bent down and was trying to help Gavin to say it. He looked troubled and stuttered "pree..... preee.... ". Vika bent down until she was right at eye level, looked him right in the eye, smiled big and said "hallo." Maybe you had to be there. We all laughed so hard. You could say she had us at Privit.

We came home, fed her pizza (ok, ok so this probably wasn't on the suggested food list. But she ate some cheese pizza with no sauce and she liked it!) I used charades to show her how to shower and luckily I had written in her language what each bottle was. She later thanked me for taking the time to do that. She is grateful for everything. She was overwhelmed when given a choice between two shirts. OVERWHELMED. She was happy just to be given a new one. She asked if she could wash her other clothes in the sink, and though she seemed uneasy, she trusted me enough to let me take them from her when I promised to clean them and give them back.

The girls and I took her for a quick trip to Target to get a few necessities. She was a bit overwhelmed BUT, like any teenage girl she did know what she liked and did say "no" and shake her head when I showed her a few things. We all laughed a lot on that trip, too. She speaks zero English. She calls me Mama, and was VERY impressed that Mama could drive a car.

Many times today I felt the gravity of this all. I had to walk away a few times as her reality began to sink in. She is here- with a tiny plastic bag that contains everything she owns. She is so hungry for love. We asked what she would most like to do this summer -- for one wish-- and she said "I would like to learn to ride a bike."

I'm pretty speechless tonight and I haven't processed much so I am going to end this here, for now. I don't know what tomorrow holds, much less the next two months. All I can think of is something David Platt said that rings in my ears tonight....

“We learned that orphans are easier to ignore before you know their names. They are easier to ignore before you see their faces. It is easier to pretend they’re not real before you hold them in your arms. But once you do, everything changes.” – David Platt.